Magazine says Seattle is a sad place with good food

“You have to leave it to love it,” a waitress told writer Gary Shteyngart when he recently visited Seattle.

Shteyngart was penning a piece on Seattle for Travel+Leisure’s “Seattle State of Mind” feature in its latest issue, and he didn’t have to leave to love the city. His article is part love letter and part travel guide; he drops some names and raves about some of our restaurants. (Who else is worried they won’t be able to snag one of Ocho’s few and tiny tables anymore?)

Shteyngart writes that he wanted a new take on the city: “Avoid all weather clichés and weather by-products. No rain, no melancholy, no coffee, no flannel, no grunge.”

Sounds good to all us damp, sad, caffeinated souls out here in the Northwest. We’ve had enough of that stereotype, thank you very much. And as for flannel, isn’t everyone wearing that again?

Instead, Shteyngart writes about Seattle’s resignation to sadness, the city’s struggle with its identity and how after many visits, it’s “always different” yet “always the same.”

He writes about a man he meets on a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island:

A big, bearded man choking on his loneliness tells me the story of his life, which concludes with the line “I was too stressed out working at the Hilton, so now I just take the ferry back and forth.” This seems to me to sum up some greater Pacific Northwestern wisdom. Cue the melancholy—this is not a city that chooses to turn its back on sadness. There are many things to do in Seattle but after a while, with a sense of resignation, one just may take the ferry back and forth.